December 12, 2008 // 8:54 pm - Alone among the three major videogame consoles, sales of the PS3 are down about 19% from November 2007, according to the latest stats from the NPD Group. Sony was only able to sell 378,000 PS3s this November, compared to 466,000 last year.

And the problem for Sony isn't the recession, it's the PS3. Microsoft (MSFT) put up respectable numbers with its Xbox 360, selling 836,000 units vs 777,000 in November 2007. And Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii continues to dominate the market, more than doubling sales from 981,000 to 2.04 million.

So why is the PS3 flopping so badly?

1. It's the most expensive console on the market, $150 - $200 more than its rivals. Even if you believe the video game industry is "recession-proof" (it isn't), a tanking economy makes consumers more price-conscious.

2. The PS3's big bonus is its ability to double as a Blu-Ray player. Too bad no one seems to care about hi-def DVDs. The differences between Blu-Ray and DVD are hard to see on a TV less than 50".

3. The PS3 just doesn't have any must-have titles exclusive to the console. "LittleBigPlanet" has generated decent buzz but isn't a game-changer, and neither is Sony's new virtual world "Home."

There's really only one option left for Sony to remain in the game: deep price cuts, and not just for people with good credit.

Tell yourself the PS3 has superior graphics if it makes you feel better, but a $400 console with a mediocre game library simply cannot compete against an Xbox 360 priced at $200 in this economy.

I dunno if what you say is actually true, I think the PS3 is doing fine.

And wtf are you on about no good exclusives? That's just your opinion.
PS3 has MGS4, Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 2, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Ratchet & Clank, Folklore, Little Big Planet. These imo are the good/excellent exclusives. Hell even Motorstorm isn't that bad (I'm not much of the racing game player). Oh and then there's the new applications for the PS3, Play TV and Home, recording in games (no companies done this yet), Trophy system - imo is a better idea than the gamer's score on the 360.

What does the Xbox 360 have? Gears of War 1 & 2 and Left 4 Dead - they're only 360 exclusives I have heard spoken of a lot - if not, at all. You may also say Halo 3, but from what I have heard Halo 3 was a failure, and in my imo Halo has been crap since day one I don't get what it is so popular, Halo and Halo 2 are the most boring games I have ever played.

Plus your statistics are probably USA only. PS3 sells more than the sexbox in both Europe and Japan - because Japanese and Europeans know what a good console is. Americans just bum Microsoft, but lets face it Microsoft is going down slowly but surely.

Vista was a fail, Xbox 360 is a crap compared to the PS3 and Wii, MSN is crap compared to other IM's such as Skype, Hotmail is a fail compared to gmail and other emails. The only good thing these last couple of years from Microsoft is Office. Oh and Internet Explorer is failing, Mozilla Firefox is taking over.

I wonder what is the next thing MS will copy off and create something and go "ha! look what idea we've come up with! Was completly our own idea I swear..." I mean look at the new 360 OP, it is just the PS3 and Wii OP's combined and the Avatars are just graphically updated Wii mii's lmao.

CNN really need to go back to journalism school (and grade 2 math as well). PS3 has sold just as many systems in 2008 as 360 has, and 360's had a lot longer to build it's player base. If any ship is sinking, it ain't Sony's.